Python Code Insight
Code insight is a common name used for auto-completion, intention actions, type inference, and other techniques related to the code analysis in PyCharm.
- Syntax highlighting
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The PyCharm editor respects highlighting of the keywords, comments, parameters, type hints etc.
The particular highlighting colors are defined in the Editor | Color Scheme page of the Settings/Preferences dialog.
- Code completion
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PyCharm supports Code completion.
As PyCharm indexes your whole project on each startup, it allows you to autocomplete any existing entity wherever it is defined.
- Navigating to declaration
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PyCharm allows you to navigate to a location where a particular named code reference has been first declared.
This is done most easily: just put the caret at the symbol in question in the editor and press Ctrl+B:
Refer to the Go to declaration and its type section for details, and the entire Navigating through the source code section to learn about the other types of navigation.
- Show expression type
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While analyzing your code, you often need to identify the type of a particular expression. Consider the following code:
def f(x: str): print(chr(x.index('o')) * 42 + 'xxx')
Press Ctrl+Shift+P and select the target expression from the list.
The expression type will be shown in the tooltip.
To preview the definition of the selected expression, press Ctrl/⌘ and hover your mouse pointer or the cursor over the expression.
- Checking regular expressions
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If your code contains a regular expression, there is an intention action to check it: just put the caret at the regular expression in question and press Alt+Enter. The RegExp checker shows up, and you have to type the string. If your string doesn't match, the background is red; if it does - green:
Read this section for details.
- Viewing reference documentation
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With PyCharm, you don’t need to surf the web every time you stumble across some alias, or search your whole application for a method declaration you can’t remember. Just put the caret on a keyword you want to look up, and hit Ctrl+Q:
See Quick documentation for details.